Until Lambs Become Lions
by LilliesandRoses27
Summary: Robin Hood AU. The roguish James Potter and the infamous Marauders, robbers extraordinaire, are rarely surprised. Of course, this was before they met Lily Evans. Naturally, whirlwind adventures and hilarity ensue, but they con't ignore the growing strength of the sinister Lord Voldemort and his dark plans.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello reader! This is a Jily AU story based (very very loosely) on the story of Robin Hood. I want to just put that disclaimer out there because if anyone who reads this is a die-hard Robin Hood fan they're going to be a bit disappointed. By the way, the title comes from a quote from the movie Robin Hood (2010). Below is a brief background about Robin Hood. Feel free to skip it if you'd like, I know the feels of a long A/N. No judgment here ;)**

**Just a bit of background for people who might not know: There really isn't much that is known for sure about Robin Hood's background besides what is provided in ballads from the time period in which he lived. He is said to have lived in England during the Crusades while King Richard the Lion Hearted (who he was loyal to) was fighting in the Middle East. Some say he came from the peasant class and some say he came from nobility, so it's pretty much up to interpretation at this point. According to legend, though, he and his group of Merry Men traveled around England stealing from the nobility (many of whom were loyal to the dastardly King John) and sparking senseless violence with a lot of people. **

**Sorry this A/N was so long, just thought I'd put the info out there. I'll put more of the historical background in the next chapters author's note (skip it if you don't want to read it, I don't mind!). Feel free to ask me questions or correct me if I am wrong about the background!**

**Lily**

** ~/~/~/~/~/~/~**

Two pedestrians strolled down a long dirt road with a lush wall of trees on either side. It was a quiet afternoon, with only the chatter of birds and the occasional swishing of branches and leaves to disrupt the silence of the tranquil forest.

The two walkers were a strange pair at first glance: a pale and sallow nobleman wearing fine but dark, conservative robes alongside a strikingly beautiful peasant girl in a light cotton dress, a burlap satchel in her hand. The only thing they seemed to have in common was their age; both appeared to be in their late teens.

The nobleman seemed agitated, always glancing over his shoulder through the dark brush and down the empty road. His companion, however, seemed very much at ease. She hummed as she walked and kicked small pebbles with the toe of her boot. However, after catching her friend looking over his shoulder for the tenth time, a look of annoyance darted across her formerly placid visage.

"Severus, please. I walk this road every day and I've never been accosted. What are you looking for, some great forest monster to come barreling out of the woods?" the auburn-haired peasant girl teased her fellow pedestrian.

"These woods are known to be frequented by very hostile robbers, Lily. I – we'd – be easy targets here in the open. I don't know how I let you talk me into this. We should have just taken my carriage!" he contended, even more agitated than before. Lily stopped, crossed her arms, and narrowed her eyes. Sighing and briefly turning his eyes up to the heavens, Severus circled around to face her.

"What?" he asked irritably.

She continued to glare for a moment until he let out an exasperated huff.

"So your discomfort has absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of being seen by your high and mighty noble friends?" She questioned him. He reddened.

"Oh for Heaven's sake, no. I've been over this with you, Lily. I don't care if anyone sees us together," he argued, but did not meet her stare. She cocked her brow, and a spark of mischief glittered in her eyes as a sneaky ruse to test his claims came to mind.

"Is that so?" She feigned an air of cheerfulness and stood on her toes, pretending to see something behind him further down the road. "Well that is wonderful to hear. Maybe the owner of that fine carriage would like to hear it as well. Let's flag him down, yeah?" She'd barely finished speaking before her dark-haired companion dove out of view and into a thistle. His actions might have been comical had he not just proven his own dishonesty.

Lily's scowl deepened as she waited for her companion to realize her trick. When Severus did not immediately emerge from his hiding spot, she turned on her heel and continued down the road, fists clenched at her sides.

"Hey – ouch – Lily, wait!" Severus yelled as he tried to extract himself. He attempted to brush the burrs off of his robes, but they were so profuse that he hadn't a hope in the world to remove them before Lily disappeared around the bend. He ran forward, calling her name twice more. When he got close, Lily abruptly turned and gave him a fierce glare.

"I don't understand why you even bother with the lies anymore, Severus. I'm not an idiot; I know you're ashamed to be seen with a lowly peasant girl like myself in front of your pompous, arrogant, holier-than-thou friends! They don't care much for the likes of me, do they? They think us lowly peasants are worthless cretins, undeserving of even the most basic courtesies! And as long as they have their fine clothes and riches, they don't give a damn who they're oppressing!" She erupted into a tirade. Severus flinched at her words at first, but this argument was not unfamiliar to him. He pursed his lips and crossed his arms as well.

"You don't give them a chance, Lily! They are wonderful company if you get to know them!" He argued.

"Oh, because they would _love_ to get to know _me_," she drawled, her words dripping with sarcasm, "Honestly, Sev! Are you blind? Their prejudices are so deeply ingrained, they would sooner have me thrown to a pack of wolves than befriend me!"

"Don't be so dramatic. They have more sense of propriety than you give them credit for. Much more than a certain band of self-righteous robbers that've made several raids here during the past few weeks. You must have heard of the-"

"What on _earth_ do they have to do with this?" Lily cut him off, looking positively bewildered. "Of course I've heard of them! They like to make sure the whole bloody forest knows when they've committed one of their acts of 'redistribution,' but why in the world are you bringing them up? Are you really afraid of a few petty thieves, in broad daylight?"

Severus smirked at her negativity towards the notorious criminals but his eyes flashed with anger at her final question. "I am most certainly not afraid of those arrogant fools!" He spoke through his teeth. "I just don't want you thinking what they do is right! I know you don't have much affection for my friends but you can't think those _buffoons_ admirable for stealing from them! I won't have it!"

Lily's bright green eyes blazed with fury and Severus shrunk back a bit in response.

"You really ought to know this by now, Severus, but I like to think for myself," she looked him in the eye, her voice dangerously calm. "In my opinion, stealing of _any_ kind is criminal and reprehensible. But at least those robbers aren't stealing under such a foolish pretense as those ridiculous taxes! They might be criminals, but they don't strut around pretending they're not. Your power-hungry, poppycock friends have _that_ down to an art form."

Severus looked undeniably affronted.

"You dare defend them? Do you know what they did to me last week? They stole every single spoon in my entire house! Even the ones with absolutely _no value_! They are disgraceful crooks that should be apprehended as soon as humanly possible. How could you think my esteemed friends as bad as _them_?" He fumed, madly waving his arms about.

"I don't think the nobles are as bad as those robbers," Lily spoke with resolute conviction, "I think they're worse."

She glared at Severus for a moment longer, and then continued to walk. He sputtered in anger, but knew in his heart there would be no changing her mind.

Lily walked a bit further until she noticed Severus' mutterings behind her abruptly cease. She sighed and turned around.

"Look Sev, we are never going to agree on – what the devil is going on here?!"

Several paces behind her, Severus, bound and gagged, stood held at arms length by a tall, spectacle-clad rogue with highly untamed hair and a bow and arrows strapped to his back. He and his two comrades began to laugh at Lily's expression and Severus' pathetic strugglings. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw a fourth rogue leaning against a tree, shadowed by its branches. At closer inspection, she recognized him as an old friend, Remus Lupin.

_At least if it comes to a fight_, she thought to herself, _I won't have to worry about fighting him. I reckon he knows better._

Three of the four Marauders – as it could only be the infamous thieves in her midst – continued to guffaw and prod Severus as Lily walked forward. She marched right up to the man with the unruly dark hair, threw her shoulders back, and gave him the most fearsome glare she could muster. He stopped laughing and raised an eyebrow at her sardonically.

"I demand you release my friend at once," she declared to him. He shot a skeptical look at one of his friends, the singularly handsome one with long black hair, then looked back at her with a smirk prominently etched on his face.

"Do you now? Well I'm sorry, but we all have to deal with disappointment at one point or another. Besides, this one is horrible company. You'd be better off spending your time with . . . I don't know . . . what do you think, Padfoot? A devilishly handsome outlaw?" His black haired friend sniggered and rolled his eyes. The rogue holding Severus winked at her and gave her a cheeky smile. "I'd make it worth your while."

Lily snorted with disgust and glared harder.

"Maybe when Hell freezes over," she shot back at him. "For the time being, I think I'll take my friend here instead. I'm warning you, this is not a request. If you don't unhand him now, I shall have to take him by force."

In response, all three boys burst into laughter. The more rotund one even fell to the ground and began to roll about. Lily smiled. She loved when people underestimated her; that meant she could prove them wrong.

Before the robbers even had time to give some cavalier retort, she punched the rogue holding Severus straight in the jaw and tripped him, causing him to fall back and entangle himself in the bushes. She brandished her knife and tried to cut some of Severus' bonds until the initial shock of her actions wore off and the two remaining Marauders took action.

The one inexplicably called Padfoot recovered first, brandishing his sword. Lily dodged his first swings and caught the third with her knife. With a swift, forceful knee to the crotch and all the strength she could muster, she pushed him backwards and kicked the sword out of his grasp. It sailed into the forest and landed far off with a muffled _thump_.

The third had gotten up off the ground and fumbled with his own sword, but after Lily knocked him over the head with the hilt of her knife, his body went limp and returned to its previous place on the dirt road. She grabbed his sword and turned just in time to parry the strike of the rogue with the rumpled hair and a new bruise blooming across his jaw.

She continuously defended his strikes, but she knew she had a limited amount of time. Soon enough, his friends would come to their senses. Severus was still struggling to rid himself of the ropes.

Her close proximity to him allowed Lily to study her cheeky opponent more closely. He was a good build, a bit lankier than most swordsmen she'd encountered, but no less capable. What he lacked in muscle he most definitely made up for in skill. His technique and moves were complex; obviously robbing the nobility had given him a significant amount of practice.

Her blood pumped vigorously through her veins as she met strike after strike with her own sword. She lunged forward, coming in close and catching him off guard. His footing slipped ever so slightly, but he regained his balance before she could exploit the weakness.

"Could use a little help over here, Sirius," her adversary prodded. The rogue previously called Padfoot groaned in response.

"Working on it, James," he grumbled and began to stand up. "So the brave and noble Sir Severus Snape needs a little peasant girl to protect him on empty roads. Not what I would expect of a loyal servant to Lord Voldemort. He must be going soft these days." He kicked Severus on his way to search for his sword.

Lily began to panic and fought with extra vigor. The element of surprise was fading fast and while she took pride in her abilities, she doubted she could take on two experienced swordsmen and come out on top. While her mind buzzed trying to come up with some sort of plan, her opposition gazed at her with a mixture of awe and frustration. He had never in his life met a girl who'd ever laid a _finger_ on a sword, let alone wield one with such skill. However, as much as he'd like to, he couldn't say he was enjoying getting his ass royally kicked by a girl.

Finally, Lily used a sneaky trick her father taught her to release the sword from her attacker's grip. She brought the edge of her sword to his neck just as Severus threw off his gag.

"I do **_NOT_** need a filthy peasant wench to protect myself!" He exclaimed. All was silent.

A flash of pain broke through Lily's mask of determination, but she quickly regained composure. Looking up at the rogue who stood at her mercy, she noticed he was regarding Severus with as much contempt and disgust as his swelled face could produce. Her brow furrowed. _Why should _he_ care what Severus says?_ She wondered.

"How could you say that, you slimy, despicable - " He began.

"Don't move a muscle," Lily warned him, putting a bit more pressure on the sword. His eyes flashed back to hers, the warm hazel color marred by his look of absolute astonishment and stifled anger.

"I could kill you right now," she said carefully. Then, slowly removing her sword, "but I'm not going to. I don't care what you do to him, but I'm charging you with giving him the same honor." She backed away slowly, keeping the sword out in front of her until she was a safe enough distance away. She threw Severus a look of complete revulsion and picked up her knife.

"Lily, I – I didn't mean it, I'm - " Severus tried to speak.

"Spare me your pathetic excuses, _Sir Snape_. I've had enough."

The one named James stood frozen in the same position Lily had left him in, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Lily looked around for her satchel, only to find him standing on its strap. She pointedly coughed and indicatively darted her eyes at her bag, but he remained unresponsive.

"Last time I checked, I'm not swimming in riches, so stealing from me would rather contradict your general creed I believe," she impatiently noted. He shook himself out of his stupor and stepped back, running his fingers through his mess of black hair. Sirius silently shook his head from his position near the edge of the forest, looking as if someone had clobbered him with a mallet. His efforts to locate his weapon had clearly proven fruitless, as a large tree branch hung limply at his side. His third companion still lay unconscious on the ground.

The two dark haired rogues watched as Lily walked into the trees towards the final Marauder, who had remained in the shadows. She held out the sword she stole from his chubby friend.

"So nice to see what pleasant company you keep these days, Remus," She commented with mock-cordiality. He shook his head and gave her a wry smile.

"I could say the same to you, Miss Evans," he countered as he took the sword from her.

She gave a sad smile, patted him on the shoulder, and then disappeared into the forest.

For a moment, no one said anything; astonishment permeated over all but one of them. Then, rather unceremoniously, Sirius whacked Severus over the head with his branch. The hook-nosed nobleman collapsed into a heap on the ground.

"What the _bloody hell_ just happened?" Sirius shouted.

**~/~/~/~/~/~/~**

**I hope you liked the story so far! I am having a lot of fun writing it! Reviews are literally cake and ice cream**


	2. Chapter 2

Remus came out from under the shade of the forest. As he stepped into the light, the gashes and scars that ran across his face stood out, clearly visible beneath a head of honey-brown hair. His blue eyes twinkled with mirth.

"Well?" Sirius asked him testily, "Care to explain? Or would you rather join Peter on the ground?"

Remus chuckled, incapable of holding back his amusement any longer.

"That," Remus began through his laughter, "was the most satisfying thing I have ever watched."

Sirius scowled and gave Remus a sound smack upside the head, but the latter only continued to laugh.

"Have your laughs now, you lousy excuse for a mate. Next time you're being dragged about by a horse, just wait and see who comes to your rescue!"

It was Remus' turn to scowl.

"Sirius, that was one time! And Peter told me it was you who tied my foot to it in the first place. Besides, you stood there laughing your incorrigible arse off for five minutes before you stopped the damn thing," he countered. Sirius looked affronted and dealt out a swift kick to his unconscious friend.

"Be glad you're out cold, you traitor!" he waved his fist at Peter's unconscious form.

"Sirius, shut up," James cut in. He turned to his sandy-haired friend, still looking rather shocked. "Remus, if you don't explain what in the world just happened in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to take that sword, and shove it where it doesn't belong."

Remus rolled his eyes and gestured to the forest behind him. "That was Lily Evans, the daughter of a blacksmith from the village of Cokeworth. I met her just before I left home, when I'd come to buy a sword from her father. Brilliant girl, and a dangerous one at that."

"_You don't say_?" Sirius oozed sarcasm.

Remus remembered the day very clearly. While he was waiting for her father to appear, Lily greeted him kindly and struck up a conversation. To Remus, it was a strange but welcome surprise; most people shied away from him due to the horrible disfiguration of his face. When he returned to pick up the finished sword, she regarded him warmly again, and asked him if he'd like to spar with her to make sure the sword was to his liking. He, like his three friends, vastly underestimated her and still visibly winced remembering the encounter.

"Did it ever occur to you to _share_ that information?" James asked irritably. "Particularly before we antagonized her and her greasy comrade?" He nodded to Snape's rumpled form.

"Never seemed like relevant information before today, and what kind of friend would I be if I spoiled the surprise?" Remus responded, smiling. "I learned my lesson the hard way as well, mind you. Figured you lot could use a dose of humbling."

Sirius narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Well thank you ever so much for that brilliant lesson, Professor Moony. I don't think my loins will ever forget it."

"For God's sakes Padfoot, keep your 'loins' out of the conversation," Remus complained.

"Only if you solemnly swear that next time you won't stand idly by as a crazed she-devil comes after me with a knife."

"Tread carefully there, Moony; knowing Sirius, there will undoubtedly be a next time," James teased. Peter began to stir from the ground beside them.

"Wha – what happened?"

"James just got thrashed by a peasant girl with a killer right hook," Sirius bluntly stated.

James tapped his chin thoughtfully. "You know what I was just wondering, Remus? Where _has_ Sirius' sword got to?"

Sirius' scowl returned as he trudged back into the forest, making a rude gesture at James as he went. Remus helped Peter up and handed him a canteen of water, explaining his story once more. James listened for a moment, leaning against a nearby tree, but his mind quickly wandered off.

He wasn't entirely sure of what shocked him more: meeting the woman of his dreams, or being utterly defeated by her in a fight. _A fight that began three-to-one, no less_, he internally reminded himself. He must have made a fantastic first impression on her, what with kidnapping someone she called a friend and then gaping at her like an idiot after she made him pay for it. A strange and fairly unpleasant feeling settled into his gut. It felt a bit like guilt.

"You know, Prongs, I'm quite surprised you didn't ask the fair lady to become a part of our merry band of misfits," Sirius' voice preceded his appearance from behind a thick shrub. He held his sword, idly picking off the vines and twigs wound around it. "Don't you always do that with opponents who've bested you?"

"Not _always_," James disagreed, but shifted uncomfortably.

"James. The words, 'We could use a bloke like you around,' have very nearly been your last on several occasions," Remus said flatly. "Just last week, one of Sir Lestrange's bloodthirsty knights was about to run you through and you still managed to put the offer on the table."

"He missed out on a fantastic opportunity then, didn't he? I'd bet all my arrows he still regrets it to this day."

"Seeing as he's dead, we'd have a bit of trouble finding out for sure," Peter interjected. He rubbed his head and noticed the other person lying on the ground a few feet away. He looked up at his friends, brow raised.

"I think she forgot something, yeah?"

"Actually, she's leaving him with us for the day while she runs errands. Said she'd be back by dusk and not to give him any kind of dairy, it doesn't agree with him," quipped Sirius.

James let out a snort, but scowled down at the collapsed form of Sir Snape, nudging him not-so-gently with his foot.

They had met before, during a number of different heists, and James couldn't say he was pleased to see him again. Snape was easily infuriated, which made stealing from him all the more entertaining, but he was just as arrogant and nefarious as the rest of his lot - always looking down on commoners and treating them like filth. James never expected to see him with someone like Lily Evans. Judging by the way she left him in the care of four dangerous criminals, though, James doubted he'd be finding Sir Snape in her company again.

"Well, we can't kill him, but I don't think public humiliation is entirely out of the question. What do you say we make sure whatever carriage comes by next gets a spectacular view?" James looked to his cohorts. Sirius shot him a malicious grin.

"Brilliant."

Twenty minutes later, the four Marauders were walking back through the forest discussing their next heist. Behind them, Severus Snape hung upside down from a branch that stretched across the road, shouting obscenities and threats at the top of his lungs.

...

Lily quickly walked through the forest, angry tears threatening to overflow as disgust and pain coursed through her. She stopped abruptly to wipe her eyes and took a few deep breaths before she continued on.

After a short while, she reached another road, the one that led directly to her family's old blacksmith house. The dull ache of knowing that her parents were not going to be waiting there flared, catching her off guard. Lily privately wondered when she'd stop being surprised by the pain that came with remembering the things she missed most about her parents; it had been quite some time since there was anyone at the house to put on a pot of tea to calm the nerves, or to distract her with sparring or forging a new sword.

It had been a two years since the plague struck her home, leaving Lily and her sister, Petunia, with nothing but each other and an empty workshop. To make matters worse, Lily really only got the empty workshop; her loathsome sister married a local butcher not two months before their parents' deaths. She tried not to think much about what might have happened had the family of Mary MacDonald, one of her closest friends, not taken her in. Seeing as Petunia hardly ever wrote and avoided eye contact if they encountered one another in the marketplace, Lily wondered if her sister would have even offered a place to stay.

The workshop had been left alone for weeks, but it still looked just the same. Hammers and mallets lay strewn about, unfinished swords hung off hooks on the walls. The only difference was that a few of her mother's old notes were scattered on a workbench in the corner, probably pushed off a shelf by the draft in the old house.

Lily smiled faintly as she remembered how much her mother used to badger her father to tidy the shop up, to which the response was always, "Darling, tidiness is really quite subjective." If she could only see it now. Lily sighed.

Leave it to her parents' memory to make her feel like doing chores would lift her spirits.

An hour or so later, Lily had successfully cleaned the entire workshop, re-hid all the valuable weapons under different floorboards, and drawn plans for a new sword she would probably never make. Anything to keep from thinking about how much it hurt to lose a friend she should have known would betray her. She was lazily doodling on old parchment when a faint scuffle of boots came from behind the door. Unsure of whom the visitor could be, she sat up and reached for the mallet beside her as the heavy oak door creaked open.

"Darling, that weapon is really fit for a foe about three times my size. Worried about an ogre breaking and entering in the near future?" Mary MacDonald asked as she lent against the doorframe, eyeing her friend with suspicion. Shoulder-length blonde hair swayed around Mary's heart-shaped face with the breeze from outside, but the stiff piece of hay stuck behind her ear remained still. Lily gave her a perplexed look.

"How did you know I was here?"

"Sir Severus Snape has been staking out the cottage for the better part of the afternoon, demanding he see you. You tend to come here when you're upset. I put two and two together because I'm brilliant. Have anything to share?"

"The short version or the long version?" Lily asked, frowning and looking down into her lap. She fiddled with the pencil she'd been drawing with.

"Give me the short version then the long version," she said, smirking, "your short versions are rubbish and it entertains me to hear what you leave out.

Lily sighed and thought for a moment. "The short version is Severus and I are no longer friends. I was a fool to think I could sustain a friendship with a person like him for any stretch of time, and I should have seen it coming.

"I'm so sorry, Lily. He's… well, let's just say you're better off without him. I won't feel bad setting the dogs on him later to make him leave, that's for certain." Mary crossed the room and opened a window, letting sunlight stream into the musty room. "What's the long version?"

"I'd sit down if I were you," Lily warned. Mary gave her a quelling look and put a hand on her hip.

"I might not be able to swordfight my way into a guarded fortress, but I think I can handle your story-telling."

"It involves your four favorite people."

Mary stared at her a moment before realization dawned on her face.

"No!"

"Yes."

Mary gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth in surprise as she looked at Lily with eyes like saucers. "All four of them?"

"All four of them."

"I really ought to sit down."

"Look! I've a chair right here!" Lily grandly gestured to the open seat. Mary quickly sat down and listened to Lily retell the events of her afternoon with rapt attention. When she was finished, Mary simply stared at her, shaking her head.

"I can't _believe_ you left the Marauders out of your short version. I bet they're much more handsome than you let on, too," she poked Lily accusingly on her shoulder. Lily batted her finger away and frowned.

"That's not really the point, Mary. They are egotistical prats strutting around the forest attacking random travelers if they happen to look rich. I can't very well blame them for ruining my friendship with Severus - it was inevitable - but they didn't have to provoke us. It wasn't right."

"If you asked me, those rich bastards have it coming, especially in that Lord Voldemort's circle. The Marauders are just giving them their due! I'm not trying to be insensitive - of course I don't like that they attacked you - but I think they're fantastic," Mary argued, but Lily crossed her arms resolutely.

"Come on, Lil, you've got to admit it makes your day to hear _someone_ raised hell for one of those vile nobles on Slytherin Manor."

Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. It never ceased to amaze her how Mary could turn her mood around.

"Alright, maybe seeing Sir Avery's face when he'd found they'd stolen his chandelier right out from under him _might_ have made my day," Lily admitted. "I really can't tolerate attacking people on the roads, though. That's underhanded, even for the Marauders."

"I think you made that point very clear when you beat the absolute shite out of them."

Lily sniggered and rose from her chair, stretching and yawning. It was almost sundown, and surely Mary's parents were wondering where they were and why there was a recalcitrant nobleman making a fuss on their property.

"Come on Mary," Lily pulled her friend up from where she sat. "Let's go home."


End file.
